Rutgers Code R.E.D. sounds alarm on campus' contribution to local environmental issues on Earth Day

On Monday, the Rutgers chapter of Reclaim Earth Day (Code R.E.D.) hosted an event to raise awareness of the various ways the University contributes to environmental issues and offered solutions to rectify them.

The organization's demands from the University are related to public transportation, food waste and environmental and socioeconomic hazards across Rutgers campuses.

The event commenced across the street from the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus with an art build, during which attendees made signs with messaging such as, "You will die from old age, I will die from climate change," "Save our Earth, save our people" and "Nature always wins." 

Participants also chalked Earth drawings and messaging such as, "Reclaim Earth Day now," and, "Express the change you want to see," on the parking lot behind Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus, and were given the option to sign a variety of petitions.

The event transitioned between speeches from John Hsu, the Democratic candidate for New Jersey's Sixth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Jordan Warner, a School of Social Work senior and Code R.E.D. organizer.

Having been involved in a recent campaign in Woodbridge that aimed to terminate a fossil fuel power plant, Hsu said that the only way to gain the attention of the people in power is to keep speaking up about the climate crisis in council meetings and otherwise.

One of the main complaints the students and Hsu brought up was the hike in NJ Transit ticket prices, with a 15 percent increase in July and a projected 3 percent increase every year after that.

"If we want to move or transition to a clean world, clean environment, we need less cars on the road, so we need fares to be free," Hsu said, after asking students and the working class to voice their disapproval by voting in the Democratic primary in June.

Warner spoke next, drawing from her previous experiences at Rutgers—Newark to explain the University’s role in environmental issues and outlining actionable steps to address them.

She said that Rutgers is gentrifying Newark and slowly pushing people who have lived there for generations out of their neighborhoods. Combined with Newark's higher rates of lead in the city’s water and air pollution, she claimed that the University is not doing enough to protect their surrounding communities.

Urging for a carbon-neutral future, Warner also said that Rutgers has not divested from fossil fuels like they said they would and still sponsors for-profit fossil fuel corporations.

When asked for comment, a University spokesperson said that Rutgers continues to stay committed to divesting from fossil fuel investments, having cut its funds to 3.4 percent of its total endowment and looking for new renewable energy sources. They also mentioned that the Newark campus is investing in research and partners that support housing developments for city residents.

Warner ended her speech by talking about the large amount of single-use plastic and lack of composting on campus, which leads to high food waste, especially from the dining halls.

Attendees decked in red clothing and bandanas subsequently marched across the College Avenue campus, chanting various slogans and calls to action such as, "When the air we breathe is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back."

"We're asking Rutgers to take action and stop being a bystander about the numerous (instances of) environmental racism that continue," Warner said.